CMSI 182
IN T R O D U C T I O N T O CO M P U T E R SC I E N C E
Fall 2006
Final Review Sheet
The final exam will take place on Thursday, December 14, at 11am. It will be open book, notes, and hand-
outs, but not open computer. This guide should help you to prepare for it properly.
Covered Material
The final covers the non-asterisked sections of
Chapters 0 to 6 in-depth, and an overview-level
understanding of Chapters 8 to 11 in the Brook-
shear textbook. Coverage also includes all hand-
outs and sample code that have been distributed in
support of this content. Make sure you have some
working knowledge of pseudocode, JavaScript, and
XHTML (i.e., you can read and understand frag-
ments written in those idioms, and you can write
simple short segments with them).
Sample Tasks and Questions
The following represent the types of questions or
tasks that you may be asked to accomplish (in addi-
tion to those listed in the Midterm Review Sheet):
•Break down a segment of XHTML source code
into its underlying document/tree structure
•Given a description of a short document, write
out a segment of XHTML that accurately re-
flects the content of that document
•Given some problem or task, specify an algo-
rithm that solves that problem, either in plain
English, pseudocode, or JavaScript
•Given an algorithm, make an assessment of this
algorithm’s efficiency (i.e., big theta)
•Given two or more alternative algorithms for
solving the same problem, indicate which one
might be preferable based on some objective
criteria (conciseness, efficiency, etc.)
•Briefly explain algorithm concepts such as con-
ditions, iteration, recursion, and complexity
•Solve a puzzle that uses reasoning similar to
what is required for formulating algorithms
•Describe or explain the overall programming
process, ranging from the human-readable
source code in some programming language to
its eventual conversion into instructions that a
machine can understand directly
•Describe or explain some key concept regarding
database systems, artificial intelligence, or the
theory of computation
•Perform some simple relational database opera-
tions on a given set of tables
•Given a description of a particular Turing ma-
chine (alphabet, states, rules) and the initial con-
tent of its tape, perform a “run” of this ma-
chine, showing how its tape and state changes as
it follows its rules.
•Given a description of a particular robot (sen-
sors, motors, physical components), provide a
“stimulus-response” sequence for getting that
robot to perform some task